A 15-kilometer crack caused by the erupting volcano runs through the Icelandic city of Grindavik

Iceland has declared a state of emergency pending what could be the most destructive eruption in half a century of the same volcano that already erupted in 2021. In the aerial images distributed this Monday you can clearly see how the terrain of the most affected city and the surrounding roads have cracked significantly, forming a 15 km long fissure.

The Icelandic residents have abandoned their homes and geologists assure that under this town, just 50 kilometers southwest of the capital, Reykjavík, there is a network of craters more than 2,000 years old in which currently the magma tunnels exceed ten kilometres. The country has recorded 20,000 seismic tremors in recent weeks, 1,485 in the last 48 hours, and the 4,000 inhabitants of the city of Grindavik have been evacuated for safety.

The Police have set up several temporary shelters for evacuated citizens, although this Monday there were only several dozen people in them, since the majority have chosen to stay with family or friends. On Thursday, the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal pool was already closed due to the risk posed to guests by tremors and staff stress. Volcanologists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) warn of the presence of signs very similar to those recorded hours before the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in 2021, when it had been dormant for almost 800 years.

According to an official statement from the IMO “at this time, it cannot be determined with certainty if and where the magma will reach the surface, but there are signs that a considerable amount is moving north towards Grindavik.”. Furthermore, they point out that “the amount of magma involved is considerably greater than that observed in intrusions associated with eruptions of the Fagradalsfjall volcano.” In fact, the apparent reduction in seismic activity in the area since Saturday is also an indicator that the magma is getting closer to the surface, according to the Bloomberg agency.

Although there are around 130 volcanoes in Iceland, only about 30 are currently active. Magma has already come to the surface in this area on several occasions in the last two years, but basically through small fissures that did not pose any threat.. The last time a major eruption threatened an inhabited area was in 1973, when lava buried part of a village in the Westman Islands.